"Never! never!
I forget you, never! By night and by day I have prayed the
protecting hand of Providence to guide you through life's trials.
How my heart has yearned to meet you in heaven! happy am I we have
met once more on earth; yea, my soul leaps with joy. Forgive them,
Father, forgive them who separate us on earth, for heaven makes the
anointed!" And while they embrace thus fondly, their tears mingling
with joy, children, recognising a returned father as he entered the
door, are clinging at his feet beseechingly. He is their father;--how
like children they love! "Sam, Sue, and Beckie, too!" he says, as
one by one he takes them in his arms and kisses them. But there are
two more, sombre and strange. He had caught the fourth in his arms,
unconsciously. "Ah, Jane!" he exclaims, turning toward her, his face
filled with grief and chagrin, "they are not of me, Jane!" He still
holds the little innocent by the hand, as nervously he waits her
reply. It is not guilt, but shame, with which she returns an answer.
"It was not my sin, Harry! It was him that forced me to live with
another,--that lashed me when I refused, and, bleeding, made me obey
the will," she returns, looking at him imploringly. Virtue is weaker
than the lash; none feel it more than the slave. She loved Harry,
she followed him with her thoughts; but it was the Christian that
reduced her to the level of the brute. Laying her coloured hand upon
his shoulder, she besought his forgiveness, as God was forgiving.
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